2 Corinthians7chapter 7

2 Corinthians 7:1

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God: the verse draws the practical conclusion from the temple catena that closed chapter 6, sons and daughters of the Almighty living like it. The bench reads flesh and spirit together as the whole person, sins of the body and sins of disposition both named, and perfecting holiness as a present participle, a continuing pursuit rather than a state reached once. The fear of God, not the fear of man, is named as the ground of the cleansing, matching the terror of the Lord Paul named as his own motive back at 5:11.

2 Corinthians 7:2-4

Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man: chorasate hemas, make room for us, the same appeal as the enlarged heart of 6:11 through 13, now defended by three denials answering charges his rivals had evidently pressed. Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation: the bench notes the swing from defense to warmth in one breath, Paul unable to stay long in the register of self-vindication before returning to affection. The tribulation named here is the anxiety over how the severe letter had landed, an anxiety the rest of the chapter resolves through the report Titus brings.

2 Corinthians 7:5-7

For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears: the verse picks up the travel narrative broken off at 2:13, Paul's anxious search for Titus across the Aegean, external opposition matched by internal dread over how Corinth had received the letter he sent through Titus. Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus: the bench reads the verse as the letter's own theology in miniature, the God of all comfort named at 1:3 now shown comforting not by removing the trouble but by sending a person. And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more: Titus himself had been comforted by the Corinthians' repentant reception, and his relief becomes Paul's joy at second hand.

2 Corinthians 7:8-9

For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season: the severe letter, mentioned earlier at 2:4 as written out of much affliction and anguish of heart, is named again, and the bench reads the momentary regret as entirely human, a father wincing at the pain his correction caused before the fruit of it arrived. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing: the joy is never in the pain itself but in what the pain produced, and the qualifier after a godly manner sets up the distinction the next verse states as doctrine. The letter that grieved them did the church no lasting harm because the grief moved toward repentance rather than despair.

2 Corinthians 7:10

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death: the verse states as principle what the previous two illustrated, lype kata theon, sorrow according to God, distinguished from lype tou kosmou, the world's sorrow, by where each one leads rather than by its intensity. The bench notes both kinds of sorrow can look identical from outside, tears and regret in either case, and the difference is only visible in the fruit, repentance that need never be repented of on one side, death on the other, the despair of a Judas rather than the restoration of a Peter. The exposition treats the verse as the chapter's own definition of true repentance, sorrow that turns toward God rather than sorrow that merely regrets consequences.

2 Corinthians 7:11

For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge: seven effects named in one breathless sentence, the bench reading the sevenfold yea as rhetorical proof that godly sorrow is never idle but always produces visible change. Revenge translates ekdikesis, better rendered vindication or the righting of a wrong than personal retaliation, the Corinthians' own zeal to see the offense of chapter 2 set right rather than any vengeful spirit. In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter closes the list, the church's response to the severe letter now standing as full vindication of Paul's confidence in them.

2 Corinthians 7:12-13

Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you: Paul states his real motive for the severe letter, neither punishing the offender of 2:5 through 11 nor vindicating the wronged party alone, but proving the church's own care for Corinth to Corinth itself. Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all: the comfort compounds, Paul's own relief, then a greater joy still at Titus's refreshment, the bench noting how thoroughly this paragraph replaces suspicion with a chain of shared consolation. The whole episode, letter, anxiety, report and reunion, becomes the pattern the letter offers for how godly correction should end.

2 Corinthians 7:14-16

For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I am not ashamed; but as we spake all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth: Paul had evidently praised the Corinthians to Titus before the visit, risking embarrassment if the church failed to live up to it, and the bench reads his relief as proof of how much confidence the severe letter had cost him to send. And his inward affection is more abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him: Titus's own heart is now bound to the church that received him so carefully, the phrase fear and trembling naming the seriousness with which they treated his visit and Paul's authority behind it. I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things closes the chapter on full restoration, the estrangement that opened the letter now entirely resolved before the collection appeal of chapters 8 and 9 begins.